


A Galra's Heart

by Strange and Intoxicating -rsa- (strangeandintoxicating)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, Pining, krolia and keith talk, krolia explains why keith isn't like normal human boys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-17
Updated: 2018-08-17
Packaged: 2019-06-28 18:14:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15712464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strangeandintoxicating/pseuds/Strange%20and%20Intoxicating%20-rsa-
Summary: “When I was a child, barely even at my mother’s knees, I knew that fact. It is something parents are supposed to drill into their children. Galra do not feel in moments or in simple thoughts. We feel with our entire being, with every part of us. We fight because we know that the one thing that has kept our species alive all this time is exactly what makes us weak."Keith and Krolia talk about the ways Galra are different from humans and why all Keith can think about is Shiro.





	A Galra's Heart

**Author's Note:**

> I found this wonderful post by mereneith on tumblr, about how Keith wasn't human and how emotionally different he may have been. I don't know if I did their idea justice, but it did inspire me.
> 
> So, thank you mereneith!
> 
> <3

“We’re different from humans, Keith.”

Keith looked up from the dimming fire, staring at his mother’s face, half-shrouded in flames. There was something in the way she stared right through the fire that left a chill in Keith’s marrow. “What do you mean?”

Of course, Keith knew that he was different, from the moment his hand burned and the skin below turned purple. He knew it just from the way he had always felt not quite like the rest of the world, not quite right. He was human, would always _be_ human, but in the same breath…

“You know exactly what I mean, Keith. Even if you don’t really understand it.” There was a telling look in Krolia’s eyes when she glanced over to him, something that made Keith swallow back the lump forming in the back of his throat. He hoped she wouldn’t see it, but from the way she frowned, Keith knew better.

He shouldn’t have been feeling this way, this weak and insignificant bug in comparison to others. He was different.

Keith was broken, twisted, gnarled and imperfect. He was the splinters that were fused together, but barely clinging to life. He was never supposed to understand _anything_ , and being stuck on the back of the space whale for so long had really proved that to him.

“Many people think that the Galra are unfeeling, but I must tell you that it is quite the opposite.”

“I—”

Krolia didn’t move, but there was a way that the smoke curled around her face that made Keith pause. There was something dangerous there, something unspoken, something almost feral.

“When I was a child, barely even at my mother’s knees, I knew that fact. It is something parents are supposed to drill into their children. Galra do not feel in moments or in simple thoughts. We feel with our entire being, with every part of us. We fight because we know that the one thing that has kept our species alive all this time is exactly what makes us weak.”

Keith licked his lips, feeling his heart humming in his chest. “What do you mean…”

Krolia smiled, but it was all teeth. “The way our emotions work is different than that of humans. With the humans, it isn’t that they are simple, But, rather—” Krolia paused, looking down at the fire. She reached over to gather a small branch from the ground, wiping it on her pants leg. She twirled the wood between her fingers, inspecting it over.

“Rather what?”

But Krolia did not look away from her stick; instead, she stared at it for another moment, then two, then three, before finally looking back to Keith. “Look at this stick.”

“Uh, okay.” This wasn’t the oddest request from Krolia since they were stranded on the back of space whale. That request would have easily been the time that Krolia asked him to spend the night hanging upside down from the trees, letting the blood rush to his head. He still didn’t quite understand why, though all Krolia had told him in the morning was that she wanted to see if he _could_.

Keith focused his attention on the stick. There was nothing particularly special about it—dark brown, with a few stubs and broken pieces of bark. There was still sap seeping from the bottom, and Keith could see a few drips hardening on the snapped side.

It kind of reminded him of all of those hours of training with Shiro, back when he was still in the Garrison. Shiro always told him that patience yielded focus, that it was his responsibility to do his best.

What would Shiro be thinking about if he were here? Would he be trying to find a way off the back of the whale, or would he just lay back and enjoy the last few years of his life slip away.

Keith could only think of the rocket leaving for Kerberos, the way he stared at the steam and smoke, praying that maybe, just maybe, Shiro would be—

“You’re thinking about Shiro.” Krolia’s words were blunt, but there was something just under the surface.

“Wha—” Keith looked away from the stick, focusing back on his mother. “How do you _know_ that?”

Krolia managed a half-smile before rubbing her hands on her pants and standing. She moved slowly toward Keith as though he were like the space wolf, coming to terms with contact. “Can I sit next to you?”

“Uh… sure?”

Krolia squatted down next to him, leaning a little ways away from Keith against a nearby rock. There was a good amount of space between them, but still, it felt almost _uncomfortable_ for her to be so close.

“I know,” Krolia began, “because when I was looking at it, all I could think of was your father. Our first actual date—” Krolia paused, licking her lips. “Have I ever told you about it?”

Keith shook his head, baffled but, really, what else was he supposed to do?

Krolia pinched the stick, letting it dangle between her fingers. “Since I wasn’t allowed out near people, I usually stayed with him at his home. Do you remember the house in the desert?”

“Yeah. I remember it.” Keith didn’t want to tell her that was where he had grown up, where he had lived his entire life, where he had found out that his father died when the fire department and police arrived at his front door, knocking with determined thumps.

Bam. Bam. Bam.

“There was this old tree in the back. Your father…” Krolia smiled, barely there in the darkness and the shadows. Keith could see just the hint of her teeth. “Your father had thought that since I couldn’t go into town for the local Independence Day event that we would have our own party.”

Keith watched as his mother stuck the tip of the stick into the fire, and once it was lit, she pulled it out slowly, smiling with wonder at the smoldering wood. It reminded him of smoke, of the echoing boom of the rocket taking off for Kerberos, not to return for at least three years—

Keith blinked, trying to steady his own mind. His brain was always like this, running off in whatever direction called to him.

“Your father called them sparklers,” Krolia finally said after a moment, the soft, wistful smile pulling down at her lips. “Made me sit in front of a bucket of water, but they were so beautiful. _He_ was so beautiful.”

Keith looked down at the tip of the wooden stick, but it wasn’t sparklers that he saw.

“Rockets,” Keith admitted after the silence began to grow heavy, the smell of burning wood tickling at his nose. “I see a rocket.”

Krolia hummed thoughtfully before sliding the tip of the branch into the ground. “Why rockets?”

Keith gave a half-shrug, but it felt stiffer than he wanted it to be. “Dunno. Just, I guess I remember the Kerberos mission.”

“No, you remember **_Shiro_** ,” Krolia pointed out.

The silence hung in the air, thicker than the smell of the wood, than their bodies, than the wolf laying nearby. “What does it matter, anyway?”

“Because you love him with your whole being, and the fact that you’re Galra means that feeling is going to be exponentially _worse_.”

“Love isn’t supposed to feel _bad_ ,” Keith said, feeling indignation clawing at his heart. “Shiro doesn’t hurt me—”

“Not intentionally, no,” Krolia mused before coming closer to Keith, letting her fingers stroke through the air just above Keith’s brow. “But he does hurt you. Every moment you aren’t with him feels like a part of you is missing, and nothing can fill in that hole.”

Keith expected something from Krolia at that moment, though he was unsure over whether or not it was positive or negative or inverted or _what_. He just knew that he should expect something that would hopefully become words of wisdom. He needed some words of wisdom from someone other than Shiro because Shiro would never really understand the way that Keith felt, and it wasn’t fair to put that kind of pressure on him, either way.

No, Keith knew better. This part of him, the part that loved Shiro unconditionally and unquestionably, would never go away on its own.

“You’ve got it bad, Keith.” She wasn’t being cruel or sarcastic; in fact, Krolia almost seemed _sad_.

“What do I do?” Keith’s voice was quieter than he ever thought it could be, that it should be. “It… it always hurts. It’s always hurt. I just feel…”

“Empty,” Krolia supplied as she finally touched Keith’s face. “I wish I could keep you safe from all the pain in this world, Keith. I wish I could give you the answers. I wish...”

Krolia pulled her fingers back, almost as though Keith’s skin burned her. “I wish I could have taught you what these things felt like, could have been there with you when you began to feel them, just so I could explain it to you. But all I can do is tell you that you aren’t alone anymore, Keith. I promise that.”

“I just…” Keith reached out for his mother’s hand, fingers feebly grasping for something, anything, in the darkness. “I never told him—I never had the courage. I just didn’t know what love meant.” Keith paused. “What this kind of love meant.”

Krolia tightened her grip on Keith’s hand. “I know, Keith. Galra… we may be different, but I saw the way Shiro looked at you. When we get back to them, you should tell him. You **_need_** to tell him, if not for your own sake, then do it for his.”

“I… do. Love him, I mean.” Saying the words felt almost painful, but there was something beautiful in its escape. It was out there, it was real.

There was no taking it back, now.

“It feels like my heart’s in my throat and I can’t think without him being there. I can’t breathe—” Keith reached up to his chest, running his hand over his collarbone. “Krolia?” Keith’s voice broke. “M—mom?”

Krolia’s breath caught on her teeth, but she managed to nod, feeble as it may have been. “Yes, Keith?”

“Why does this hurt so much?”

“We’re Galra, Keith. We love with everything in us. We give ourselves over to our emotions completely and utterly. We’re just…” Krolia swallowed. “We love once, we love with everything in us, and we will never forget that. You're not broken, Keith—we’re exactly who we’re meant to be. We're Galra, and our hearts are our biggest strength and our greatest weakness.”

 


End file.
